Workforce Development Model

ADTEC Workforce Development Model

The award-winning ADTEC workforce development model is driven by continuous industry input and feedback. Program areas are identified that support emerging and demand industries that are key to the regional economy, such as advanced manufacturing and renewable energy technology. Industry input is obtained through mechanisms such as skills standards and competency surveys and facilitated DACUM (Developing A CurriculUM) processes.

Through these processes, industry identifies job titles, job competencies, technical and professional skills standards, equipment/tool standards and other relevant information that is necessary for the development of workforce talent in that specific industry. That information then becomes the basis for the design of curriculum, course guides, and equipment standards for the education/career pathway for that particular program.

During and after program development, industry continues to provide input and feedback through regularly scheduled Advisory Team meetings, review of program materials, involvement in revisions and updates regarding program/curriculum content, work-based learning collaboration, participation in training/re-training of existing workers, and involvement in other activities that support the program.

The ADTEC workforce development model includes a continuous trained worker pipeline. This includes three major resource pools for workforce talent development:

Existing workers

Unskilled and dislocated workers

High school students

The Workforce Investment System and One-Stop Centers provide a pool of unskilled and dislocated workers, and ADTEC has memoranda of understanding in place with each of the three Workforce Investment Boards in eastern Arkansas to formalize that relationship.

Each of the ADTEC colleges operates a secondary technical center on its campus, which allows high school juniors and seniors to enroll in the college-level programs developed for industry and earn concurrent college and high school credit. After completing the two-year program, most of the high school students will have earned a college certificate of proficiency upon high school graduation.

ADTEC has been named a Top 10 national finalist for the prestigious Bellwether Legacy Award, to be presented by the Community College Futures Assembly in January 2014.